Today was our last tour (some are silently cheering this) with Paddywagon Tours to Blarney Castle, Fort Charles, Kinsale, and Cobh. We travelled along the southwestern coast of Ireland, starting out from Cork to begin our day.
The bus ride was pretty quick out to Blarney Castle; no one even fell asleep! Tommy was our driver and he started out pretty good until he decided at the end of the day to get pretty political with us.
The walk up to Blarney Castle was breathtaking through the gardens, which we would explore after our main agenda: kiss the Blarney Stone and be gifted the ability to gab. Our bus driver warned us the lines would grow long, so we headed up straight away, as we only had three hours at this stop. The stairs were VERY narrow and steep, but the views were absolutely spectacular when we reached the top.
Overall it was about a ten minute climb to the top, but it was worth the effort. Once there, we only had about a ten minute wait to kiss the Blarney Stone, which was a bit more challenging than we thought! Essentially one lays on their back and scoots back, and back, and back again while holding on to two bars and a guide holding your waist. It’s WAY farther away than I anticipated for sure. The kicker is the large gap between where you are and the actual stone. But we all did it! Now, I was a bit dizzy upon standing back up, but luckily the kids were there to help! Definitely something we all will remember!!
After we finished it was off to tour the castle and gardens. Seamus didn’t kiss the stone due to his apprehension of heights, but he was ready to explore the poison gardens, the Seven Sisters Stones, and the little village where we grabbed some snacks and prepared to head to a fort overlooking the Wild Atlantic Way!
Now it was time to head to Charles Fort outside of Kinsale. Beautiful views of the Atlantic Ocean and the harbor that marked the sinking of the Lusitania where 1198 people were killed by a German torpedo. It was a short stop here but we did lots of investigating!
Now we headed down into the harbor town on Kinsale to grab some lunch. Cute little town but very busy. We learned through this trip that restaurants do not split checks and unfortunately the waitress here was not on her A game. Poor Max got his food about 20 minutes after everyone else finished eating. The food was good though. Great fish and chips at this stop!!
Now it was off to our last stop, Cobh, which is pronounced Covh. This is the last harbor stop of the Titanic before it headed out to sea and its fate of sinking. Lots of beautiful views from the cathedral there that was not finished before the Titanic was in harbor. Kennedy Park was also found here; JFK and Jackie visited and spoke here during their tour. Big hill to get up to the Cathedral, so we celebrated with gelato to celebrate!!
Now it was time to head back to Cork and find some dinner. We hoped we would have better luck than last night! The boys just wanted sandwiches so we found some at Centra, the shopette, and they headed back to relax. Joe and I tried Thoman Pub and found it empty and still serving food. The rest of the group joined us for some dinner! Then it was off to pack for our train back to Dublin and our flights home.
Now it’s time to prepare for our last day in Ireland!
Kennedy Family Travels 